Known motor vehicle seats of this type which allow sliding the seat to the front as well as tilting the seat-back forward for easy access to the back seats, are equipped with a locking device for return to the original position from which the seat has been slid forward. This locking device has a locking element which is normally coupled to the upper runner of a pair of seat runners, released from the upper runner when the seat back is unlatched for a forward tilt, and fastened to the associated lower runner. In addition, the runner latch is unlatched and held in the unlatched state until the seat reaches the locking element during a return to its initial position after it has been shifted forward. This system is not just costly but also has a relatively large space requirement, which is why it can only be located, as a rule, in the unprotected area beneath the seat. As a result, then, if the seat cannot be returned to its initial position any more because of, for example, loaded items placed behind the seat which was slid to the front, the seat latching device can no longer be latched. The loaded items must then be removed again in order to return the seat to its initial position before a new, initial position, further forward, can be chosen.